The idea of chaning HOV lanes is not all together bad but there has to be better flow control.

There are some in Hampton Road Virginia but they have gates at every exit. In the decade I lived in the area the only time I knew of someone getting on the wrong way, the guy went around the gates. It's not that uncommon, northern VA has them as well on 95, go with the flow of traffic.

The worst I've ever seen is Nicholasville Road in Lexington KY, the lanes change directions based on the time of day. It's like seven lanes wide and depending on what time of day anywhere from one to five lanes go in either direction.

Bashar and Asma's Infinite Playlist:The best are the dumbasses who decided the logical place for a Wrong Way sign was directly between the off and on-ramp, facing both sides equally. Thanks a lot for the heart attack, assholes.

A u-turn on a 3 lane width freeway? Must have been an interesting sight. For Semi-truck and "standard" 53' trailer, you're looking at a circle approximately 55' in diameter, inside; so about 75' outside diameter (at least, that's what my old schoolhouse teachers said, I've never actually measured my rig taking a turn but I honestly doubt its possible in my rig without uncoupling). An average freeway lane is about 12' wide; and based upon the picture, no breakdown lanes; so even accounting for the width of paint, you're looking at MAYBE 37-38' of room to play with.

Granted it's a flexi-bus whose pivot appears to be around 2/3rds along the length, which is quite different from a semi-truck / trailer combo where it's more like 15/85 depending on configuration but I can't believe their turning radius is THAT much better.

JPINFV:FriarReb98: PapaChester: "The HOV lanes were closed for about an hour while Colorado State Patrol officers and Denver Police officers worked to turn the long bus around."

Are these buses on tracks or something? An hour? To pull a U-turn?

Do you really think a regular bus could do a U-turn in a 3-lane wide HOV lane, let alone the longcat of buses that that one apparently is?

Here's the logical quick solution.

1. Police block off the next on-ramp (given current traffic flow).2. Bus driver backs up said bus to on-ramp.3. Bus driver uses said on ramp as an off-ramp,4. Reopen traffic.

Here's the actual logical quick solution:1. Police close the adjacent lane of traffic starting at the next exit the bus will reach in the wrong-way it's heading.2. Bus continues to drive the wrong way on the shoulder to the next exit and exits the HOV.3. Police reopen the close lane of traffic.

There's all sorts of free HOV lanes around DC whose direction depends on time of day, they are all well marked, however. Pennsylvania avenue does have several middle lanes of city road that flips during certain times in southeast DC. It's written in fine print on some signs you may or may not see, and it may be excepted for any subset of the blocks that are usually subject to it, depending on construction. Not sure if it still exists.

Easy. Just blame the driver. All the city people are exonerated because they're "officials" and hence, blameless. Why wasn't a barrier in place at the right time? Couldn't a regular drive make the same mistake. What moron chose using a sign than a barrier that would come down at the proper time with a warning light signifying end of HOV lane?

PapaChester:Are these buses on tracks or something? An hour? To pull a U-turn?

There's a pic in TFA, if you'd bother to look. Not only was it one of the extra long articulated bastards, but the HOV lanes it was in are between the NB and SB interstate lanes so they only have 2 lanes + shoulder between the jersey barriers. The bus is longer than that.

FriarReb98:PapaChester: "The HOV lanes were closed for about an hour while Colorado State Patrol officers and Denver Police officers worked to turn the long bus around."

Are these buses on tracks or something? An hour? To pull a U-turn?

Do you really think a regular bus could do a U-turn in a 3-lane wide HOV lane, let alone the longcat of buses that that one apparently is?

Why even do a u-turn? How about ... close one on-ramp, detour traffic around to the next, and let the bus drive off towards a parking lot or half-way into an intersection, then back up a little bit and drive off.

FriarReb98:So if I'm reading the story right, not only has this happened before with car

a different bus, but they apparently did nothing about it then, either. Farking brilliant.

Even better. It sounds like it happened before with another BUS, not a car and they did nothing about it. FTA: "...an investigation recommended a series of changes in training and in the bus dispatch center in order to try to prevent the precise thing that happened on Tuesday morning."